Powell Is A Buffaloed Chicken Wing

DERRICK Z. JACKSON THE BOSTON GLOBE

The cowering of President Bush over the United Nations Population Fund is one more sign that the moderation of Colin Powell is out to pasture. Compassionate conservatism is compost.

Powell, the man who is pro-choice at the Republican national conventions and pro-condoms on MTV, said the U.N. fund "does invaluable work" and gives "critical population assistance to developing countries."

His voice no doubt led to an early pledge by Bush to give $25 million to the fund. Congress made it $34 million. It almost made you think Bush actually cared that the $34 million, according to the U.N., would prevent 2 million unwanted pregnancies that result in 800,000 induced abortions, 77,000 deaths of babies and children, and 4,700 deaths of women during pregnancy or childbirth.

Then the clucking of the right wing got Bush's attention. Antiabortion groups claimed that China forced women to have abortions with U.N. support. No massive body of facts was offered to back up the claim, and besides, none of the $34 million could be used in China anyway, under U.S. law. This winter Bush stalled on releasing the money.

The antiabortionists wanted a permanent ban. In a congressional hearing in February, Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, told Powell: "China today, on a massive scale far larger than the Nazis, uses forced abortion to exploit and to control women and to murder their babies. Enablers like the U.N. Population Fund have whitewashed these crimes for more than two decades."

Charges like this needed checking out, and Powell tried to do it. A State Department team went to China in May. In a summary report to Powell, the team said that while China still has "coercive elements" in its family planning, it found "no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization." The team recommended the release of the $34 million to the U.N.

That finding echoed those of a British fact-finding team. The tripartisan team, which included a member of Parliament from each of the Labor, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, found "no evidence" of forced family planning, sterilization or forced abortions where the UNFPA is active.

The same president who asked Americans to wait for "sound science" on global warming and then ignored the finding by his own Environmental Protection Agency that warming is real showed no interest in the facts of either team. While Powell's fact-finders were at work, the antiabortionist Population Research Institute was lining up more than 140 think tanks and religious organizations to urge defunding of the U.N. Population Fund.

That hysteria, based on a four-day tour, compared with the nine days of the British team and 14 days for the American team, was enough to coerce Bush. The White House announced that it "came to the conclusion that the U.N. Population Fund monies go to Chinese agencies that carry out coercive programs." The State Department said that instead of giving the $34 million to the U.N., which has a presence in 142 countries, it will distribute aid itself.

When Bush reinstated the gag rules, Powell shrugged, saying, "I have other views that are my personal views, but this is the policy of the government." Given the politics, that means Powell will go from supporting the U.N. fund to giving out aid that will probably have so many gag rules on it that the programs cannot possibly reflect his views. Hoping to make Republican moderation on social issues as substantial as a steer, Powell became a buffaloed chicken wing. He clucks while the right wing is the bull in China's closet.

Derrick Z. Jackson is a columnist for The Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02107, or e-mail him at jackson@globe.com.